The Black Hills are full of many tourist caves and caverns to explore. I have always loved getting to visit a cave. It is fascinating to go deep in the earth and not needing climbing equipment is a good way to go, in my opinion. This year we decided to explore The Black Hills Caverns.
It turned out to be a very interesting experience!
The entrance to the Cavern
Caleb really enjoyed this cave. There were less stairs than most and it was more like a cavern. It had a easy walkway through the narrow passages. It was a very family friendly cave and Caleb loved skipping through the rock.
Pictures are always tough in a cave but some turned out well.
Good ol' Algae
The back of the cave was still alive and these are some of my favorite formations.
About this point in the cave our tour turned more interesting than normal!
Although we enjoyed the cave, the tour guide was horrible. Most cave tours involved the tour guide telling all about the history of the cave, how it was found, what all the formations are called, and all kinds of fun cave facts. This young 15-16 year old boy, hardly talked at all. He just cruised though the cave and spoke to us twice. I can't tell you anything interesting about this Cavern except that a wedding was performed there. At the back of the cave, we were excited to show Caleb all the neat live formations and wanted to get great pictures. Next thing we know we turned a corner and there wasn't anyone from the tour group.
WE HAD BEEN LEFT!
In fact 6 of us had been left behind!
I shouted to see where they might have gone but no one could hear me. The 6 of us decided to stay close together. In our group we had a sweet older lady, who of course couldn't move super fast, but she happened to be a geologist so she decided to educate us on the cave formations and become our tour guide. We didn't think we could get lost but there were a few times the path split we had someone check out every path. Eventually the tour guide was informed that 6 people were missing and he came back for us. We were grateful he didn't just walk out and turn the lights off on us!
Unfortunately there was not a single person over the age of 18 at the Black Hills Cavern that day to complain to. The older woman gave the young tour guide a few words of wisdom about not leaving old people in a cave and rushing through a tour!
A beautiful cave to see, not a great tour at all!!
But Caleb loved the caving experience and it sure makes for a fun story!!
The Day We Got Lost in a Cave!
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